


Philter

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1020]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 14:42:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13366881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Tony joins the Marines and meets Drill Instructor Gibbs. Then years later they meet up after they've both left the Marines.





	Philter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TT_Angst_Queen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TT_Angst_Queen/gifts).



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 02/14/2002 for the word [philter](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/02/14/philter).
> 
> philter  
> A potion, charm, or drug supposed to cause the person taking it to fall in love, usually with some specific person.  
> A magic potion for any purpose.
> 
> This is for Stocking Stuffer #8 requested by Tardis_Type40 for the 2017 Happy Holidays Challenge, [here](https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/95769.html). I hope she enjoys it.
> 
> As always comments, kudos, and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated.

# 

Philter

Despite Senior, Tony grew up loving his country and really believing in everything it stood for. His father may have twisted the country’s ideals for his schemes, but Tony never did. He truly loved his country. That’s why when he was 19, he signed up for the Marine reserves.

Refusing his father’s choices for his life and going to Ohio State to pursue a physical education degree was best the best decision he ever made. Even though he was in the reserves, he still had to complete basic training. Summer vacation was just long enough for Tony to make it through the 13 week required training.

Tony had signed up to take basic training between Sophomore and Junior year in college. He lined up with all the other recruits going through basic training at this point in time. They were introduced to their DI, Gunny Gibbs.

Tony heard the whispers from the Marines that had already gone through training. None of them had any sympathy for the recruits or rather they all had sympathy, but felt that the recruits wouldn’t be around long. Their first day of training it became obvious why there were such whispers.

Gunny Gibbs prided himself on being a bastard and he ran the recruits hard. There were no second chances. There were no redos.

You either got it, right, or you dropped out, or completed punishment duty. You counted yourself lucky if punishment duty was simply a slap to the back of your head by Gibbs. Most of the time punishment duty was either some insane physical feat that you’d kill yourself attempting and would be worthless for training the next day or it was cleaning something disgusting like the bathrooms, which while less physically demanding was insanely demanding mentally.

Gibbs didn’t respect any of the recruits. There was only one way to earn Gunny Gibbs respect and that was to complete whatever he threw at you and keep going without complaining. Recruit after recruit went up against Drill Instructor Gibbs’ harsh demands and recruit after recruit failed.

There were a few recruits that quickly picked things up and earned Gunny Gibbs’ respect. Tony would like to say he was one of them, but he wasn’t. Even with his athletic abilities that he used in football during college and would allow him to go pro football, Tony struggled with the physical requirements of a Marine.

There was a reason the Marines were considered to be the best of the best. There was one saving grace that Tony had, though, and that was he never gave up. He may not have completed or exceeded at the skills they were expected to have, but his undying determination earned him Gibbs’ respect.

Gibbs knew the Marines needed recruits like Tony who no matter what you threw at them wouldn’t give up. The young man had impressed him and Gibbs didn’t want to see him fail. So in his own unique way Gibbs decided to look out for Tony like he would for his son, if he had one.

Unfortunately for Tony, getting fatherly attention from Gibbs meant one on one training sessions and even more hard work. Still Tony wasn’t one to back down. He took the attention for what it was, Gibbs having faith in his abilities, and he worked even harder.

Soon Tony was as good as the recruits that were excelling from the start. He started earning more and more head slaps as punishment instead of the harder punishments as he improved his abilities. He also found out one of Gibbs’ rules during the one on one sessions.

Rule #5, You don’t waste good. Or as Gibbs had pointed out, Tony’s determination made him good. By the time the 13 weeks of training were over, Tony felt completely exhausted.

However, he beamed in pride at the ceremony that marked them as having made it into the Marines when Gibbs shook his hand and told him that he was the best damn Marine he’d ever trained. He returned to college for one year and went back to football. His football skills were greatly improved from his Marine training.

He’d had a chance to go pro before and now it was practically guaranteed. Only before he could go pro, war came and Tony was asked to take up an active duty tour. Tony couldn’t turn it down.

He’d been trained for this and he believed in this country. Tony never saw Drill Instructor Gibbs again after basic, but Gibbs had followed Tony’s career. Gibbs’ himself had ended up leaving the Marines after the death of his wife and daughter, but he still followed Tony’s career.

Especially after losing his wife and daughter, he couldn’t lose his son too. He’d started working at NCIS, but he kept his eyes peeled for any news about Tony’s time in the Marines. He knew Tony had been called to active duty and was fighting for their country, right now.

Gibbs couldn’t do anything for Tony since Tony wasn’t even in the US currently, but he could get justice for the Navy and Marines that ended up dead and on NCIS’ plate and as the years past and he didn’t hear anything from Tony, he gradually forgot Tony. Gibbs became known for his bastard nature even more at NCIS than he had been known for it as a Drill Instructor. No one wanted to work with Gibbs, but no one could deny Gibbs’ determination to get justice for the dead Marine and Navy personnel.

Meanwhile, Tony quickly moved into the role of Marine sniper as the extra gun training with Gibbs had made him by far a better shot than anyone else. He earned the nickname Bullseye as he made shot after shot that saved his teammates' asses. It got to the point where his team hated going out into the field without Tony to back them up as a sniper.

Their team became well known for bringing everyone back alive, at least until the accident. An enemy sniper managed to get a bead on Tony’s position. A lucky shot ended Tony’s career as a Marine as it tore through his knee, forcing Tony to need surgery and to have to take a medical discharge.

The hospital Tony was transferred to was filled with women both as nurses and as doctors. Oh, there were male nurses and doctors as well, but Tony never saw them. The women nurses and doctors both seemed to be in love with him.

If he didn’t know better, he’d swear that they’d all been slipped a philter that made them fall in love with him. He’d always been bi, so he acted like he was living it up, but in reality he just wanted to go home and figure out what his options were for the rest of his life. Of course, the doctors didn’t want to let him leave.

They wanted a chance to make him fall in love with them. They ran out of excuses to keep Tony in the hospital and Tony managed to escape and head back to Ohio State. With the injured knee, Tony knew he wouldn’t be able to do pro football anymore.

He changed his major to criminal justice, deciding to become a cop instead, unknowingly following in his DI’s footsteps. He went through three different police departments never staying longer than 2 years at any single one before he literally collided with his mentor on a case during his stint at the Baltimore Police Department. He chased Gibbs down and arrested him as the man was undercover working a money laundering case.

Gibbs offered Tony a job after Tony found out that his partner was dirty due to the money laundering case Gibbs was working. Because of the undercover nature of Gibbs’ job, Tony pretended not to know him and Gibbs showed no sign of recognizing him. Tony accepted Gibbs’ offer and started working with the man.

He’d expected to pick up where they left off as DI and recruit, but Gibbs still showed no sign of recognizing him. Still they fell into a father/son relationship naturally. Both of them cared for the other and they both had a protective streak for the other.

The other NCIS agents were surprised at how well Tony handled working for Gibbs. Gibbs instituted the head slaps whenever Tony did something wrong and the other agents couldn’t believe what Tony was willing to put up with. To Tony though it was reminder of boot camp and the father/son relationship they developed there, so while he probably should have protested the behavior, he just couldn’t bring himself to do so.

Nothing could come between Tony and Gibbs. They added Kate and Tim, but while the addition of new team members meant they didn’t have to work as hard, the truth was their solve rate stayed the same as when it had just been the two of them. Unfortunately, they lost Kate to a terrorist and through some strange quirk that Tony didn’t understand they gained the terrorist’s sister as a teammate to replace Kate.

It never made sense to him, but he wasn’t in charge and Gibbs accepted it, so he followed his surrogate father and didn’t protest the terrorist’s sister joining the team. They never talked about their life together in the Marines. Tony just naturally followed the orders Gibbs gave and Gibbs never thought anything about how smoothly Tony followed his orders.

At least, he didn’t think about it until he got caught in an explosion that caused him amnesia. The memory of Shannon and Kelly dying came rushing back to Gibbs as he laid in the hospital bed, but that wasn’t the only thing he remembered. He also remembered a determined young Marine that he took under his wing and made into the best damn Marine he’d ever known.

He couldn’t believe it when that same Marine lurked outside his hospital room. He chased Jenny out who he didn’t remember and called for Tony to enter.

“You’re still the best damn agent I’ve ever trained.” Gibbs whispered as he smiled at Tony, who he thought of as a son.

“I love you too, dad.” Gibbs was dad, unlike Senior who Tony could never call anything other than father as their relationship had never been as close as the one he’d had with Gibbs. After remembering Tony, their relationship grew even stronger and not even Jenny could separate them, even when she tried her hardest to do so.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I'm looking for some writing buddies. Full details are [here](https://cutsycat.livejournal.com/53610.html). It is friends locked, so you'll have to add me as a friend on lj before you can read it. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 
> 
> **2017 Prompt collection is now closed.**  
> 
> Don't worry though, you can still prompt me through my 2018 Prompt collection [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile).
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes.
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback here if you think something could be improved(either in the prompt process or the story itself).


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